Debi Adams, Alexander Technique

But Before You Do….

May 21, 2021 at 6:09 pm 1 comment

There seems to be an endless search for the best definition of the Alexander Technique. Ask 10 AT teachers to define it and you may get 10 different answers—or you will get answers that emphasize different aspects of the technique. The reason for this is simple.  Using the Alexander Technique can have an impact on every aspect of our lives. For those who seek relief from physical pain, the emphasis may initially be on the physical aspects. We may talk about how your head balances on your spine so that learning to decompress it will result in a lengthening of your spine often resulting in a relief from discomfort. Perhaps the pain has become chronic which will likely mean that a story around it has become your story of who you are. If you believe that story and it accompanies you everywhere you go, that will result in a pattern of movement reflective of that story.  Can we learn to change the story?  Yes. Whether we emphasize the physical or the psychological or the spiritual, we are talking about a whole person interacting with the world.  No one part can exist without the rest of us.  Any attempt to separate ourselves into parts will not be successful. 

But no matter what your initial approach may be, change takes place in a window of opportunity. Sometimes that window is wide open with lots of time to ponder our choices.  And sometimes that window is barely cracked open with just enough time and space to change our minds, change the direction of our path, recognize the possibility of a new choice.  Early AT lessons are about opening that window-even just a crack.  I find myself offering suggestions to my students to move– but with the caveat “but before you do….”  It is mindless action that can cause our difficulties. But before you do is just enough of a suggestion to not forge ahead into the transition to do something.  Transitions are opportunities for change.  Transitions can become those windows where we make new choices. So go ahead, move from reading this article to scrolling to something else.  But before you do……

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